Your Privacy Rights | City of Waterloo Recreation Services

Privacy statement

Modern information and communication technologies play a fundamental role in the activities of an organization like the City of Waterloo. Protecting your privacy and your personal data is an important aspect of the way we create, organize and implement our activities online and off-line. The City of Waterloo is the sole owner of the information collected on this site. Any personal data relating to you will only be used and recorded by us in accordance with current data protection legislation and this privacy statement.

Most of the information accessible on the city's website does not require you to identify yourself at all. You may access it anonymously. However, the City of Waterloo does collect personal information about you when you choose to provide it. We endeavour to collect only as much personal information as is absolutely necessary to assist you in conducting business with the city via the website.

We provide multiple service "channels" for conducting business (e.g. walk-in, mail-in, fax-in, phone-in, etc.) in addition to the web. If at any time you have concerns about using the web channel to conduct your business with the city, we will always provide you with an alternative (traditional) service channel as an option.

Privacy compliance

Our practices have been designed to ensure compliance with the privacy provisions of the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Ontario). The City of Waterloo endeavors to make its information accessible to the public, however, some records contain information that is either privileged or of a personal nature.

The Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act compels the municipality to review such information prior to considering disclosure. Requests to access such personal and privileged records must be made in writing before the city can make a decision on whether or not the records may be disclosed.

Use and disclosure of personal information

You can access our website homepage and browse our site without disclosing personal data. We collect your personal data only with your knowledge or your consent. Our website logs information about you that is automatically recognized by the web server, such as your IP address and domain name. We use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the site, track user movement and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Cookies

We do use cookies on our website. A "cookie" is a small text file that is stored on a user's computer, placed there by a web server for future access and retrieval of stored information. By themselves, cookies are completely harmless, and as their name implies, they offer surfers a treat by retrieving information exclusively pertaining to that user. All our employees and processors who have access to your personal data and are associated with the processing of that data are obliged to respect the confidentiality of your personal data.

Purposes for which we collect personal information

We collect and retain personal information for the following purposes:

To process your requests for services, products or further information
To communicate with you regarding services or products that you have requested
To identify you if you have a query or concern about the service or product that you have requested
To advise you about changes to our web service offerings and of service interruptions
To meet legal and regulatory requirements

Questions about the collection of personal information should be directed to the freedom of information officer in the clerks office by phone at 519-886-1550, by fax at 519-747-8510 or by TTY at 1-866-786-3941.

Protection of personal information

The City of Waterloo takes every precaution to protect your personal information on the Internet. We protect your account information by requiring you to enter a unique login ID and password each time you want to access your account information. Your password should never be shared with anyone.

The City of Waterloo is the sole owner of the information collected on its site. We do not use or retain personal information that you provide to us for any secondary purposes unless we clearly notify you and gain your permission first. We will not sell, share, rent or otherwise disclose your personal information to any organization or individual outside the City of Waterloo unless we first notify you and ask your permission. We will not disclose your personal data to government institutions and authorities unless required by law or other regulation. Raw data may be used for statistical or comparative analyses prepared by or on behalf of the City of Waterloo provided that such data will not be associated to an identified individual or business.

From time-to-time, we may request information from you via surveys. Participation in these surveys is completely voluntary and you have a choice of whether or not to disclose the information requested. If you choose not to participate in surveys, you will still be able to use our site or request services or products from us.

Links to other websites

This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by the City of Waterloo website.

The city's website contains links to other sites (e.g. community links, business links, etc.), however the City of Waterloo is not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites. When you leave our site, we encourage you to read the privacy statement of each and every website that you visit before you provide any personal information. The city's privacy statement applies solely to information collected on the city's website.

The City of Waterloo makes every effort to ensure the links listed are current and are indeed linked to the appropriate site. When we become aware of a link to a site with questionable content, appropriate action will be taken.

Security

This website takes every precaution to protect our users' information. The City of Waterloo uses the industry standard encryption technology to keep your personal information safe. When users submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and off-line.

All user information is maintained in a secure environment. Only authorized staff of the City of Waterloo, who need the information to perform a specific task (for example, billing, shipping or customer service staff) are granted access to personally identifiable information and only allowed access to it when absolutely necessary, and then under strict guidelines as to what use may be made of such details.

Notification of changes to the privacy statement

If we decide to change our privacy statement, we will post those changes on the city's homepage so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under which circumstances, if any, we disclose it.